Chapter 1. What Should Not Be Seen (1)
Laila Kristrad’s earliest memory was the bitter smell emanating from her cradle.
Lying in the cradle was, of course, the newborn Laila herself. She was less than a week old and found it extremely difficult to breathe on her own. The unfamiliar smell and unpredictable air touching her skin were also unbearable.
Laila’s mother picked her up, wrapped in a rough swaddling cloth—probably made of low-quality linen. As her face drew close, Laila could smell the bitter scent coming from her mother. She was exhausted and struggled to breathe as much as Laila did.
“You have different eyes than mine.”
Her mother said to Laila.
“Don’t look at them. Don’t listen, don’t wave to them. Let them pass by you, wailing. My daughter. Your name is Laila. And like my mother, her mother, and all the witches before, you also bear the name Kristrad.”
Then she laid Laila back in the cradle and sat down in a creaking chair, heaving a long sigh. She had given birth to Laila there, and she would be sitting there when she died.
Sometimes she cried, and sometimes she groaned while looking at Laila in the cradle.
For a while, Laila thought it was a dream, but eventually, she knew it wasn’t. It was Laila’s memory, her first encounter with her mother. It was a small and complete world.
Daughter of a witch, Laila Kristrad. That was the name she was called by.
* * *
The village of Lizigkus was located at the northern edge of the Kingdom of Sierow. Most people here made their living herding sheep or goats and spent one season in autumn or winter logging. Under the Rogas Mountains, where the entire mountain range from the valleys to the peaks would blur into a grayish color when the weather was cloudy or the temperature dropped, people led simple lives.
Laila Kristrad’s life was the most monotonous and unremarkable even in the plain and simple village of Lizigkus. The house she lived in stood isolated at the entrance to the Rogas Mountains, so old that it was impossible to tell when it had been built. Even Laila herself sometimes wondered how this house, which looked like a dilapidated abandoned building from afar, managed to stand without collapsing.
But whatever the reason, it was undoubtedly fortunate. For Laila, who couldn’t easily go down to the village when she needed something, a roof that steadfastly withstood wind and storms was, to add a bit of exaggeration, a blessing.
“Huh, some blessing,” Laila muttered sarcastically as she looked up at the old roof tiles with a basket tucked under her arm.
Meanwhile, children living in Lizigkus village grew up hearing the nagging “Don’t go to the entrance of the Rogas Mountains” from the age they could walk and run around. If a child didn’t listen and asked “Why can’t we go there?”, instead of hitting their bottoms with a switch, parents would answer like this:
“A witch lives there. If you go near, she’ll kill you without anyone knowing and put you in her cauldron. If not that, she’ll steal your pretty eyes and put sharp stones in their place instead.”
Their words were half-truth and half-lie. Laila was the daughter of a witch and a witch herself. But she had no desire or intention to boil children in cauldrons or gouge out their eyes.
Still, she liked the quiet, so she didn’t feel the need to correct the rumors. Laila’s monotonous and shabby life had continued mostly satisfactorily and pleasantly.
Until recently, when a certain problem arose around her.
‘They’ve increased again… Two more than yesterday.’
Laila muttered to herself as she climbed the mountain intending to pick mushrooms. Her head was unnaturally stiff for someone climbing a steep mountain path, and her gaze was stubbornly fixed straight ahead as if someone was pulling it with a thread.
‘I mustn’t look. I mustn’t look at that…’
Laila’s breathing became slightly ragged. As she grabbed a protruding branch and pulled herself up, the children sitting huddled together on a nearby rock all turned their heads in unison following her movement.
The children were all dressed in ordinary clothes regardless of gender, and their ages varied from toddlers of about three or four to mischievous twelve-year-olds.
But one thing…
There was nothing where their eyes should have been. How should I describe it? It was cleanly empty as if scooped out with a spoon. Yes, cleanly.
‘Don’t look at me.’
Laila thought desperately, feeling the hair all over her body stand on end.
‘You can’t see anything anyway, right? Don’t look. Don’t look at me, please.’
Laila strained her neck desperately to avoid looking at the children. By the time she finally climbed the steep path and entered the relatively flat forest edge, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. Her fingers tightened on the basket.
The ghost of a boy without eyes was following her.
The boy was one of the few children whose name Laila knew. He was Tommy, the eleven-year-old biggest troublemaker in Lizigkus village, always leading the other children as their ringleader.
After catching her breath for a moment, Laila started walking steadily. The boy silently glided closer, matching Laila’s pace. Squatting under a tree pretending to look for mushrooms, Laila gritted her teeth seeing him closer than when she first noticed him.
‘Damn… Has he latched on?’
I didn’t look at them. Or did I? Did I pay too much attention to them? Why is he following me? Why!
“Stay calm.”
Laila took a slow breath and reassured herself. The gloomy, ashen, translucent boy persistently clung to a corner of her vision. Desperately trying not to turn her head towards him, Laila turned her body with her back to the boy. And she started walking.
“I have to stay calm. I can’t panic.”
Laila’s steps kept getting faster. But every time she glanced back, the boy was still there. With only his eyes cleanly missing as if the yolk had been removed from a boiled egg, he persistently chased her with an expressionless face.
“Damn it! How far are you going to follow me!”
Unable to stand it anymore, Laila shouted. At the same time, she threw away her basket and started running. The sound of her footsteps hitting the ground quickened, and a hissing noise like a snake began in her ears.
—Laila…
“Shut up, Tommy! Don’t call me!”
Laila screamed. But the voice continued. It wouldn’t stop no matter how much she covered her ears. In her head, in her ears…
—Laila…
“Aah!”
Laila’s body swayed backward as she stepped on slippery leaf mold. Laila kicked off her half-slipped shoe and barely managed to regain her balance. However, the moment she saw the two holes right in front of her face as her head tilted back, she bit her tongue while gasping.
—Caught you.
The boy who made eye contact with Laila —of course, he didn’t have eyes to cast a gaze, but at least that’s how Laila felt— smiled broadly.
“…Go away, Tommy.”
Laila whispered through gritted teeth as she backed away. She wanted to swing something, but she had nothing in her hands as she had thrown away the basket long ago. As Laila shook her head while clenching her empty fists, Tommy’s ghost came closer. He was still smiling, and even seemed happier than before.
“Tommy, I said go away. Go play with your friends. Sit on the rock and enjoy the breeze, or just disappear somewhere. Damn it, Tommy!”
Please don’t come any closer.
Please.
Her lower lip started trembling, then her jaw. Her teeth chattered, but Laila was so terrified she didn’t even realize the sound was coming from her. The boy was now grinning so widely that if he smiled any more, the corners of his mouth would reach below his ears.
“Tommy!”
At that moment, something crawled out of the boy’s empty eye sockets.
What is that? A snake? A centipede? Or something else? It moved as if wrapping around the ashen face of the boy once, then shot straight towards Laila like an arrow.
“No!”
Laila screamed and reflexively raised both arms to cover her face. That’s when it happened.
Suddenly there was a grating noise so disturbing it made her nauseous. It was a screeching sound like a blade being drawn across a slate. Lowering her arms and looking ahead, Laila opened her mouth, trembling at the unbelievable sight.
—Screech… Kick…!
The body of Tommy, or more precisely, ‘what used to be Tommy’, was twisting grotesquely. His joints were bending in unimaginable directions, and the elongated something that had sprung from his eyes was writhing as if being burned.
Laila stared at the horrific sight as if mesmerized. The boy’s body continued to twist more and more, then began to shrink, now looking almost like a forcibly kneaded plaster paste. The part that was once the boy’s shoulder bulged out like a grotesque tumor, then burst with a pop!
“Good heavens, what is…”
As Laila stumbled backward, her back bumped into something. Thinking it might be a tree, she hurriedly turned her head and looked up. It wasn’t a tree. Nor was it a ghost.
What Laila had bumped into was a strange man. He was very tall, with long hair tied up in a ponytail that was almost white. The most peculiar thing was the monocle he wore over his right eye.
“I’ve finally found you.”
The man said. He had somehow gently grasped Laila’s shoulder with his large hand. As the dumbfounded Laila’s lips trembled, the man lowered his head slightly and looked straight into Laila’s eyes, saying:
“Yes… Indeed, you have different eyes than mine.”
For a moment, her mother’s voice, which she thought had faded long ago, flashed through Laila’s mind.
—You have different eyes than mine.
Laila’s eyes blinked slowly. Her pupils were as red as pomegranate seeds, and the man was observing them as if they were rare gems before suddenly turning Laila’s body around.
Laila’s eyes widened, almost popping out, as she was made to turn around by the man.
Tommy was no longer visible. Instead, all twelve children who had been gathered on the rock were there.
Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.
When male lead is the homewrecker
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
I’ve read the novel below twice already. Girls, I’m highly recommending it to you!
The female lead? Not a good person.
The second male lead? Not a good person.
The male lead? Willingly plays the third party, breaking up the female and second male lead’s relationship despite all the warnings from his friends—so yeah, he’s definitely not a good person either.
Basically, nobody in this novel is simple-minded or without scheming.
The female lead starts off as the male lead’s secretary, but don’t worry—later on, she takes over the company while the male lead steps back to support her. He won’t steal her spotlight, overshadow her, or dull her shine.
I love novels where men are out here snatching wigs, tearing each other down, and going to war just to win the female lead’s affection. And this is exactly that kind of novel. Most of Hai Dai Ran’s works have this dynamic. You’ll see the male characters’ emotions being pushed to the absolute extreme.
There’s even a scene where the second male lead exposes the male lead online for being a homewrecker. The brotherhood immediately gangs up on him, dragging him through the mud. I find it compelling —it completely flips reality on its head, where usually, women are the ones fighting over a man and getting torn apart by the sisterhood.
For me, female leads in the novels I read should only struggle in their careers, not in love. But if the brainless romantics in the story are all men? I have zero complaints.
I’ve pretty much read all of Hai Dai Ran’s novels and even translated all of them—her works are just my thing. I’ll slowly upload everything here. One day, when my website is official, I hope I can invite her to join as one of the star authors.
Here’s the story synopsis:
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Intro 1:
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
With blood trickling from his clenched fist, Rong Xiu gazed at the woman before him, his eyes clouded with anguish. Hidden in the wardrobe, he had witnessed Fan Xia – the woman he desperately loved – in an intimate embrace with her fiancé. Yet his heart still yearned for her, defying all reason.
Fan Xia, the elegant and composed assistant, carried something mysterious in her eyes whenever she looked at her fiancé, Wen Lan Sheng. Strange occurrences began to surface – secret meetings with the young Gu Jin Yi, an unexplained withdrawal of 5,000 yuan… Then suddenly, her fiancé’s sister, Wen Jing, violently attacked her.
In this matriarchal society, Rong Xiu had risen to become the chairman of a powerful healthcare conglomerate, breaking through gender prejudices. But for the first time, he willingly stepped into the shadows as the other man, disregarding his friends’ warnings to become her secret lover.
Because he had discovered the truth – Fan Xia wasn’t the pure angel everyone believed her to be. And perhaps, he was the only one capable of helping her execute her mysterious plan…
Intro 2:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
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